When comparing Circadian Hue for Philips Hue vs 3rd Party Phillips Hue APIs, the Slant community recommends Circadian Hue for Philips Hue for most people. In the question“What are the best apps for controlling and automating Philips Hue lights on Macs?” Circadian Hue for Philips Hue is ranked 3rd while 3rd Party Phillips Hue APIs is ranked 7th.
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Pros
Pro It's hard to argue with Free
Pro Some command line friendly tools.
Some of the APIs are command line friendly. There was a Bash API on the list. It might be very easy to pick up and use. It could be a fun project to learn how to design an application that uses a ncurses interface.
Pro Flexibility
Make what you want with less sweat equity than starting completely from scratch. The frameworks are there, it's a matter of learning them and building with them.
Cons
Con Computer must be on and not sleeping
This application doesn't do any scheduling, it makes live adjustments over the network throughout the day. So for it to work your computer should ideally be on, connected to the network the Phillips Hue is on, and not sleeping at all times.
Con Time investment required
Requires time to learn your way around an API and write anything from a bash script to a full-blown application.